more colour . . .

The white start of my "Tabula Rasa"-project
has changed to a bit more colourful snippets.

I've thought about the gradual change in colour
and I've come up with a rough scheme now.
The white of the wintry start of the year will
be followed by yellow.

Why ?

THIS is why !!!
When most of the cold is over
the Aconites push their bright yellow heads
through the old Ginkgo leaves that cover the ground !
Yes, way before the Snowdrops, though they
come soon after.

 

And because the weather here in the southwest of the country
is very mild right now
even the first small crocuses are showing !
(the northeast had LOTS of ice, snow and even black ice last week !!!)

But    YELLOW  it is
for the next part of my 15 cm whide strip !

I found a bit of my "Magic Thread" for an extra swirl
(which will appear in the work from time to time
though there is only a small ball left)

*
(SOOOOO many other ideas are whirling in my head
and I've started a few backgrounds already
but
I can't seem to decide what to do next with them)

20 !!!!!

20

What a respectable old lady !

At the age of twenty ?

Old ?

YES

when you're a Burmese cat

you are !

(but our dear Bella is still going strong !)

*

These past few weeks I was busy with the concertina booklets

of Mandy Pattullo's workshop.

But my first fabric book was for daughter

so I only showed the second one in the tin box.

Today, while celebrating the summer holidays with a BBQ

I could give her the finished book,

her own Fire-keeper story.

 When still working on the covers and inside stitching with

MAGIC thread ...

Some close-ups :

Fire  !

Inside the hut 

at the end a new start !

*

The garden is as full as it ever was :

no sigh of the empty spaces after all the work at the terrace

and hardly any fence left to see

And inside, in the bathroom upstairs at the north facing window,

one of the orchids is very happy

and started flowering again

We're happy too

in our green oasis !

wordless Wednesday

... here comes the sun ...

The last few days were filled 

with stitching,

stitching,

and more stitching.

Done !

    Summer  Solstice   2016

(I'll have to check tomorrow,

with better (sun) light,

if the colours are okay)

More details of the left and right side.

It was really fun to use lots of different

embroidery threads :

silk, rayon, DMC  and thin crochet yarn.

I the outer circle I used all kinds of blues, purple and even green.

After I did the final bit on the bluish circle

I looked where there needed to be more yellow quilting.

In the end I folded the thin white backing fabric

over to the wrong side and stitched it.

I'll probably mount the quiltlet on a canvas.

*

There were a lot of wet days

this last week.

But sometimes when the sun came out

I could sit in the garden and stitch.

Some noise made me take a better look at the water :

(that runs along our garden)

a "baby" grebe and mama.

Mama had managed to catch a fish.

The little one was squeaking,

but mama held on to her fish

I had even time to fetch my camera,

and still she held on to her prey for minutes.

Bur the little one stayed close and alert

Then she finally handed the fish over 

and he finally could start swallowing the fish

(I did catch that, but the picture is unsharp ...)

Here he just had it inside

ha, you can still see where the fish is ...

Done

Hmmmmmm ...

I think he has a smile on his face !

Ahhhhh, that water is such a BONUS to our garden !

(oh, this is post 600 !)

wordless Wednesday

Summer Solstice

Yeah well ...

no summer in sight at the moment !

Lots of rain, lots of drizzle,

only a minute of sunshine today.

So that leaves only my own sun

that I've been stitching on today.

I made the initial 20 x 20cm bigger

by adding some more yellow strips around it.

Then came a bit of blue and another fine backing.

(now it's 30 x 30cm)

I wasn't too sure about the blue corners ...

but

after adding a big circle of my magic thread

I knew how to continue

More blue stitching in between.

Slowly going

...........

waiting for the sun to come out again

sun and moons (and a garden)

When I took my sun & moons piece 

with me to Yvette, it had been quite some time

since I last stitched on it.

That's what happens sometimes :

things are tucked away,

waiting till their turn comes again. 

When I opened it up

I took my little special bag with variegated threads

and in it were the new bits I bought

at HAWAR's lovely shop.

There were all kinds of red thread and lace band in it,

and the lace band triggered the next step

I could have couched it  but I sewed it on invisible

because I liked to see the change in colour.

At the same time I added my magic thread

around the sun.

(waiting for thousends of stitches more)

*

Almost forgot 

that I had a lovely belated birthday present last week :

a friend took me to a wonderful garden.

I drove up to her house,

we rode on a bike to the ferry,

crossed the river and came to the

"Mengelmoestuin"

("Hodgepodge garden")

(sorry but the site is only in Dutch)

The weather was so beatiful.

We had a stroll around the garden

and then had some tea

and also some delicious homemade jam.

It was such a wonderful afternoon !

Thanks Mir

(we will return next year for a workshop ...

making Calendula ointment perhaps)

the tale ( 14 - 7 - 14 )

Yes !

All the last little bits and pieces 

are attached to the bigger piece.

The tale can be told !

I read this tale in the novel 

"Bone House"

by Betsy Tobin.

(the book is set in Elizabethan England  and the tale

 was told by one of the main characters in the book)

"Near a village lives, hidden in the woods, a wonderful mystrerious bird. 

All those who have ever seen a glimpse of it, tell their own wonderful story.

A traveler hears all the wonderful stories and is desperate to find this

miraculous bird. He then roams through the woods, without finding it, untill

in the end he does catch a glimpse of its beauty. He grabs his bow and 

shoots the bird. Then, where it fell down, he only finds a small gray black

little bird ..... At long last, he puts the dead bird in his bag and returns to 

the village. He tells the villagers that he saw the bird in the end ... and that 

it was just as wonderful as they all had told him. He tells them to keep

safe this wonderful miraculous bird and leaves the village, to never return."

The villagers

telling their strories about the beautifully coloured bird.

The mystrious bird 

(everyone tells a different story about its beauty)

The dark woods, with a glimpse of colour

The traveler shooting the bird

and when it falls to the ground, he only finds this.

But the story has to be kept alive ...

THE  END